Posted by John Walker on May 7th, 2010.
Share ·
I’m trying to think of a way to link the new puzzle/adventure game from Erin Robinson and Dave Gilbert, Puzzle Bots, to a hung parliament in the UK election… Right, okay, here we go. In this hybrid game you control up to five robots at once, who are all forced to work in coalition with each other in order to complete tasks that would otherwise be impossible on their own. Come on – that’s why they pay me the big bucks*. It’s a game that’s out today.
Posted by John Walker on April 27th, 2010.
Share ·
I’ve been looking forward to The Whispered World since PC Gamer’s Graham Smith returned from Cologne last year to tell me how lovely it looked. A point and click adventure into which a huge amount of love was being poured. It’s been out in Germany for a long while, but has now been released in English. My review of the game is now up on Eurogamer, and it begins like this:
“There’s a sensation familiar to anyone who knows adventure gaming well. It’s that moment when you’ve cracked a puzzle, and the game opens up. Suddenly there are two or three new locations to explore, new objects to find, and new puzzles to solve. Those mysterious inventory items make more sense in this new context, and previous unsolved puzzles receive that vital clue. They’re fantastic moments, stepping out of dark rooms into bright light. It’s probably the very hardest thing to get right in an adventure game. The Whispered World demonstrates one of the more frustrating ways to get it wrong.”
Below is the launch trailer, plus some other thoughts that – for reasons explained – couldn’t go into the review.
Posted by John Walker on April 19th, 2010.
Share ·
Fourteen years old, Toonstruck has dated in some respects, primarily the scan-line FMV. But being cartoon, in others it remains as lovely today. The main trouble is how hard it is to get to run, requiring DosBox with special instructions, or Virtual Machine. Or better yet, and I’m increasingly tempted to do this, building a box out of ancient PC parts and installing Win 95 on it. Like Day Of The Tentacle, as I played it for Eurogamer I couldn’t help but take screenshots of everything. Below are but some of them. (You can have fun giving yourself a seizure by scrolling the first few images and watching them strobe.)
Posted by John Walker on April 19th, 2010.
Share ·
Eurogamer currently sports my retrospective of Toonstruck, the 1996 point and click adventure starring Christopher Lloyd and some cartoons. I went back to it having forgotten if I even liked it 14 years ago, and was absolutely delighted to discover that it’s fantastic. I say things like:
“In looking back at some of the best (and worst) adventure games of the eighties and nineties, it’s too easy to remain within the archives of LucasArts and Sierra. Perhaps Westwood’s Bladerunner gets quickly remembered, Cecil’s Broken Sword games, and someone will recall Adventure Soft’s Simon The Sorcerer games. But what about The Legend of Kyrania series, also from Westwood? Access’s Tex Murphy games? Microids’ Syberia? And what about Burst Studio’s Toonstruck? Why isn’t everyone talking about it? It’s absolutely bloody brilliant..”
And it continues here. Also, I can’t resist doing a gallery for this one either, so that’s coming up.
Posted by John Walker on April 15th, 2010.
Share ·
If you’ve been playing with Sleep Is Death (and so far, I haven’t, but it’s because I’m so busy! And have no friends…) you might well have found yourself telling a fantastic story. If it’s super-fantastic, you could be within a chance of winning $200 from developer Jason Rohrer. He’s looking for the finest narratives told with the game to be submitted to him before midnight tomorrow New York Time, and his five favourites get cash. Which seems a good incentive. Although he’s only one man, so has stated that only the first 100 entries stand a chance of being read. There’s a bunch of rules and conditions to read on the compo’s page, so be sure to check them carefully before sending off your finest adventure.
Posted by John Walker on April 14th, 2010.
Share ·
The third series of Telltale’s Sam & Max games is due to see its first episode arrive this Thursday, and to remind us all of this there’s what’s described as a “smidgeon of gameplay” to be watched, below. The first episode is called The Penal Zone, and it’s safe to assume no opportunity to snicker at “penal” will be missed. In fact, as the footage below shows, it’s safe to assume an awful lot has changed since season two, with a new inventory, new conversation system, new features such as a notepad, and most of all, the ability to play as Max using his new-found psychic powers.
Posted by John Walker on April 13th, 2010.
Share ·
Kieron linked to the Hamlet demo yesterday. It’s a Samorost-style point and click adventure, cute cartoon graphics and, of course, a Shakespearian plot. I’ve been playing the full version for a while, and as is the way of things I have some thoughts about it.
Posted by Kieron Gillen on April 9th, 2010.
Share ·
You may remember in September last year, when – among the other splendid happenings, such as the first communications with the people of the Martian canals and the discovery that ancient Egyptians were the inventors of the popular dance “the locomotion” – there was The Whispered World demo… in German. And now – in the month when lasers appeared mysteriously from the nostrils of all Welshmen of greater than four years – there’s The Whispered World demo… in languages other than German. As in, English. You can also buy it from GamersGate here, for Earth money. Not filthy Martian coin. Oh – trailer follows.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by John Walker on April 9th, 2010.
Share ·
The Special Edition of Monkey Island 2 has produced a collection of new screenshots. They’re the compare-and-contrast types, so you can see the original, then tut about some aspect of the new ones that aren’t precisely as you want them, most likely involving someone’s hair being a tiny bit wrong. Meanwhile no one complains about the controls being awful, and then gives it 100% because they remember enjoying the original when they were seven… Oh dear, I appear to be venting some frustrations in an inappropriate manner. Of course, we don’t know about the controls for MI2: SE at this stage, and I super-hope they’ve been fixed. So, to the new pics. They look rather good. Have a peek below to see what once was, and what will be.
Posted by John Walker on March 29th, 2010.
Share ·
This may seem a bit strange, posting a gallery of images from a seventeen year old game. But as I replayed Day of the Tentacle last week, every scene made me take a screenshot out of the pure pleasure of looking at it. And you know what else? Those scenes are already in the shape of an RPS image. It’s meant to be. It’s divined from above. And so here, two decades late, is a gallery of DOTT images. It’s like looking through a photo album of a favourite holiday. For me at least. And I suspect for quite a few others too.
